AS long as Charlotte rides carefully so as not to fall ok...... I think she might want to quit at some point.

I agree.

It seems like she takes this sport as a hobby, which is ok, but maybe she should eventually quit it. She is not particularly good at it, to keep going on competitions. I don't know, maybe she does it because she wants the sport to gain some popularity? I think i recall reading that in an interview.

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__________________* * The eyes are the mirror of the soul* *The Impossible is what the mind can not imagine ...

Well i know nothing about horse riding but, looking at Charlotte's photos seating on her horses, i always get the feeling that she rides horses that are not fitted for her height... as if the horses she rides were to big for her. I say this because looking at the photos i always get the feeling that her legs are open too widely across the horse, as if her legs couldn't embrace the horse propperly. Of course, i can be wrong. In a competition level horses must perhaps have standard heights... Could anyone please enlighten me?

Size of the horse is not even discussed. One of the most successful Grand Prix horses we had in the barn was the tiny (14.3) Nick of Diamonds who won Grand Prix after Grand Prix. He jumped 5'11" in the 6 bar at Spruce Meadows. When he came to the jumps, all you could see coming towards you was the tips of his ears. Unfortunately the might Nick died tragically young atfer falling in a drainage ditch and fracturing his skull after getting loose while being longed. On the other end of the spectrum is the present star of our barn Carissimo, who is 18.0+.
Here is Nick:

I only thought that the horses should have to obey to some standard sizes because Charlotte always seems too small for the horses she rides... or that the horses are to big for her. I say this because of her position upon the sadle. Her legs always seem to be too wide open over the back of the horse, spreading without, however, embrace its flanks

It's not just Charlotte that suffers from that particular problem. I haven't seen many jumping riders who look genuinly good on their horse. They're either too tall, fat or short.

And it's not so much the height (which does matter because you can't have a horse at 1.53 start with those of 1.67, no matter how well they jump) but the strenght and courage they have. In my experience, the smaller make the better all-round jumpers.

If you look at the two videos I just posted, you will see that size does not matter. A small horse with a big jump can beat a big one with a middling jump. The little ones also are fast on their feet, turn well, and are often sounder long term, because they are lighter; therefore less stress on the anatomy.

In fact, it is my experience that it is the rare horse over 17.1 hands or so that is athletic enough for top performance. Simply, due to elongated confirmation, they tend (as a rule, not an absolute) not to have enough "hock strength" - an ability to get their hind legs under them to create the impulsion needed for jumping and dressage.

Stroller, a pony, was on the British Olympic team in 68 and jumped one of the few clean rounds.

Most of the great equine athletes have been between 16 and 17 hands. There are, of course, exceptions.

I always preferred to ride a horse closer to 16 than 17 hands because they felt more contained, more agile and more "safe" in the sense of not crashing through jumps, nearly falling over at turns, etc. Mind you, my experience is primarily with eventing - and the smaller horses are almost always more sound through vigorous efforts , as Scooter says.

Ian Millar said that riding a horse like Big Ben (17.2) was more challenging than riding a smaller horse because it is harder for a horse to stride down, than stride up, and still maintain their natural athletic ability. Spaces in between triples were always difficult, as an example, because they required a sustained "ride" because the horse's natural stride was too big for the in betweens, particularly the last one. When you see a horse/rider taking a triple, there is a fairly consistent pattern of hold (approach), hold (between first and second jump) and let go/urge (between second and third jump), allowing the horse to maintain his own optimum balance. With a very tall horse this is not possible unless they are very very athletic and horse and rider have achieved a trust.

A horse like Hickstead (16) was nearly the perfect athlete - tall enough to gain an advantage just in leg length but short enough to maintain impulsion.

Well, you know the ride to the tripple combination is also affected by the individual obsticals/elements. verticle, verticle, verticle rides differently than tripple bar, verticle, oxer, etc. Throw a liverpool or dry ditch into the equation and you have yourselves a party. The rudest tripple I ever saw was in Palm Beach where at the last GP of the WEF they built the tripple with B as a huge square oxer over the open water. Nearly half the class bit the dust. And it was a $150,000 class, so the big dogs were all there.

She took part in another showjumping competition in Barbizon and run I don't know how many horses (Troy, Rubins, Costa, Carry...) , from october 3 to october 5.
Not that her results are any better, though.
Carry seems to be totally broken. She should sell it and try to extract as much as she can from little Costa Virgio before he gets bored aswell:

She really should decide what she wants to be: equestrian rider, horse owner, financial backer of the sport, fashion model, arts magazine publisher, producer. What's the point of doing all of this if you dont do it well? Why set yourself up for failure and ridicule? She needs to focus on one thing and try and do it right.

It's the same pattern again and again, she spends her summer away, someone else rides her horses, she comes back, gets nice results one or two days, and the moment she starts riding regularly her horses herself the bad results acumulate.

^ She left the place without her horse? Did she expect her groom to take him back? She always has an ambiguous attitude towards her horses. She pretends being obsessed by them, loving them a lot, but we have never seen any proof of it (on pics). She seems to be scared each time she's on a horse, there is no tenderness in the fact of waiting for your turn on an estrade, riding 3 minutes and going back to the tribune, leaving the horse to someone else. I agree that Charlotte doesn't train enough, but I also think that she should create a relationship with her horse. We all have seen pics of Zara taking care of her horses, but never of Charlotte - except when she's posing for photoshoots (Hola and Self Service for exemple). Spending time with them would allow her to be more confident. However, maybe I'm wrong and she does all of this secretly!
By the way as a rider, I have to recognize that Charlotte is very courageous to try to jump so high. It's also a bit crazy (because we can see that she isn't really prepared to do it) but there is something in this attitude that we have to notice. She fails, but she keeps on trying. Jumping is very impressive, it's not an easy sport at all.
If Gad is with her in Caen, no doubt that we are going to have pics of them!

Charlotte is quoted in the official press announce of the jumping. She is introduced as "the princess of Monaco": she's used by organisers for publicity to attract people. I wonder if she was paid to take part to the jumping, or if she did it to train before another GCT jumping.

I don't think she was paid, Lovelykate. She's been riding quite consistently since Vienna. She was jumping1.30 in Barbizon last week, and in Fontainebleau 2 weeks prior to that. If she wants to keep jumping at that level Caen was a logical step.

About her abandoning the place without her horse, well, it looks like Costa Virgio rode away after refusing the jump and it was the groom who catched him. I don't see anything wrong with it or with the groom walking out of the ring the horse per se.

The really weird thing it that Charlotte doesn't seem to have any interest in him, she is just walking away, complaining about her back and ignoring the animal, not caring to calm him down or check if he's ok.
Everybody who's seen Charlotte jump can guess with a 99.999% of certainty that the fall was her fault. Her wonderful horses save her ass half the time but there is always a point when she makes things too complicated for them. Checking on Costa should had been her priority.

But your right, at least we can't deny that the girl has guts!
I don't know how she even dares to jump 1'40 courses !

The reality is that there are only a certain amount of whatever level competitons, which you then winnow down based upon quality of footing, prize money, ease of getting there, hotels etc. Once a trainer has enjoyed a certain show, they will be more inclined to go back there year afer year with the whole string of horses and riders.

Looks like she's definitely broken the horse in under six months. Must be a new record.

For some unknow reason she only rode the 1.30 with Costa and is saving Carry for the 1.40 this afternoon.
Funny, when she hasn't been able to have even half decent results in 1.30 since I don't remember when..